IHS Says Netflix Secured 32% Presence In Connected Devices In US

IHS Inc. IHS revealed that Netflix, Inc. NFLX has secured a presence of 32 percent of connected devices in the United States. According to the research firm, there were more than eight billion connected devices globally. IHS said that at end of the year 2015, Netflix addresses 339 million connected devices in the America. The research organization said that as a fraction of the total U.S. installed base, this was equivalent to addressing 32 percent of the audio-visual hardware landscape. Principal analyst, Merrick Kingston, said that "Netflix's reach is a testament to the company's unrivalled device strategy. The service's ubiquity turns Netflix into a de facto rival – and on occasion complement – to any other given video offering in the U.S." The company indicated that the days when a multiscreen pay TV service could uniquely lay claim to a device or platform were effectively gone. It added that pay TV media apps are virtually guaranteed to sit alongside the Netflix application on consumers' end devices. Similarly, for all its early momentum, Chromecast was unable to out-ship the Apple TV. The research organization said that this finally changed during the first quarter of 2016 with Apple TV shipping 1.7 million units compared to Google pushing 3.2 million Chromecasts to market. Kindston said, "We anticipate that this reversal will persist. Since the introduction of the fourth-generation Apple TV, Apple and Google have pursued vastly different strategies." The IHS analyst continued to add, "The proliferation of media-enabled connected endpoints has implications for media consumption, media production, broadband infrastructure, and the business itself of network management and traffic discrimination. It drives media consumption, IP traffic and more." IHS traded 1.23 percent down whereas NFLX traded 0.79 down on Thursday.